Sunday, February 21, 2016

Art and More

I'm late with this week's post, but I have a good excuse. Sunshine! And warm temperatures. It's been gorgeous this weekend and I have spent much time outside. I'll have some outdoor photos later in my post, but first this week's art!

This mountain lion just wouldn't come together, so I just kept working at it and adding more layers and wiping them off and adding another. And suddenly, there it was! Beautiful and intense.
The swans are somewhat unusual. They look like they are floating under disco lights. Strangely enough, I painted them around Valentine's day. Totally unintentional and very heart-shaped!
The gorilla took a little while, plus one revision after I thought it was done. I had to lighten the background to make the face stand out a little more. I had fun with this one and the swan painting using my stencils. I used them to apply paint and also wiped off layers of paint with rubbing alcohol through the stencil and got some great texture that way.
I love this snake! It looks as intense as it probably is. I'm happy I don't see them in the wild too often. In fact, having lived in areas heavily populated by poisonous snakes, I have only ever seen three in nature. And none of those times was I in any danger. I'm very glad!
The following four photos are of the backgrounds I prepared for this next week's small paintings. All of them have two layers of high-flow acrylic paint.  I'm hoping they will be just as beautiful when they are all finished.



This next photo just makes me laugh. One of my dear friends from childhood sent us two espresso cups from Germany. One smiles and the other one sports this sad, sad face. I was sitting at the table and noticed the ceramic woman a friend brought back for us from Santiago de Compostela in Spain last year. She, too, looks so very sad. It had quite the opposite effect on me and had me giggling and reaching for my camera.
Daniel has been beyond busy with work and this weekend I made him drive to Tybee Island with me and go for a walk on the beach. He was brave and walked in the water even though the ocean is still very cold. It looks like we were the only ones there, but the beach was full of people who had the same idea. It was wonderful and somehow makes us feel more relaxed instantly!
The artist in me always notices things in nature that I would have overlooked before getting into art.
Here I was totally enamored by these tree forms the waves left in the sand. Aren't they pretty?
Speaking of nice weather, we've put a bit of time into our yard this weekend and planted several kinds of lettuce, parsley, cilantro, kale, zinnias and poppies. The poppies never come up, yet we put out seeds every year in hopes that maybe this year will be different. We'll see. The zinnias always do exceptionally well and give us cut flowers for the house all summer long. Can't wait!!
I took these photos this morning in our yard. The daffodils are blooming, the kumquats are ready to be eaten, the yarrow is starting to flower and a few azalea buds are getting ready to open. They won't really bloom until mid-March, but they are announcing that spring is coming!
On that note, I hope you are seeing sings of spring where you are. I know that the weather hasn't been great in northern Europe where many of my family and friends live. I wish I could bottle up some sunshine and warmth for you who live there...

I wish you sunny days, a happy heart and flowers to bring you joy! Until next week...

Silke

11 comments:

  1. Farbenprächtige Bilder. Und der Spaziergang war bestimmt sehr erholsam. Eine schöne Woche, wünscht Anna

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  2. Beautiful animal paintings especially the panther. Yes, in Texas we are experiencing some spring. It is 75 degrees and very humid. The trees are budding and I am sneezing.

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  3. i can understand your giggle at the table lady (✿◠‿◠) she is kind of funny with that sad face overseeing the food

    have a good week

    much love...

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  4. Lovely pictures, especially the tree patterns on the sand!

    It's been rather mild yesterday, but so windy I still put my heavy winter coat on for a walk on the fields. Lots of small flowers in people's gardens, but no daffodils or tulips yet. Once those are out, spring is really here. Although the birds seem to be thinking we're already in the middle of it, the way they sing every morning!

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  5. Wunderbare Kunst - der Berglöwe ist mein Favorit und herrliche Fotos! Schick ein bisschen von Euren Temperaturen bitte!

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  6. The mountain lion is wonderful! I haven't used high flow acrylics--your backgrounds are so beautiful..spring will be in your neck of the woods before you know it! It was 70 in Missouri on Saturday--very unusual!!

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  7. Wieder ganz fantastische farbstarke Bilder sind dir gelungen liebe Silke.
    Diese tollen Baumstrukturen im Sand sehen sehr schön aus. Toll daß du schon pflanzen kannst. Hier ist es seit Tagen naß und dunkel und es soll ab Heute auch nochmal kalt werden. Mal sehen wann hier der Frühling Einzug hält, ich hoffe pünktlich zum Frühlingsanfang am 21.3.
    Liebe Grüße und viel Erfolg bei deinen Pflanzen.
    Sabine

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  8. What a fabulous post! I am in love with the colours on that mountain lion...and his eye..wow so impressive!! A show stopper for sure!! Love the happy heart accident with the swans and how you made the texture on the monkey. Not a fan of snakes you made it quite handsome...and not hard to look at!!However he does seem grumpy... and I do love your photo of the espresso cup and Spanish lady...soo cool!! Great beach photos and even though it's too early to plant things here in B.C. we do have a few daffodils coming up in areas, so maybe we will have an early spring too!!

    Hugs Giggles

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  9. Oh, those backgrounds .... they make me swoon ... Love love love them! The gorilla is my favorite this week, he has such a sad and wise expression on his face. And the eyes of the mountain lion are gorgeous! It's looking right into my soul ... ;-)

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  10. Such gorgeous colour! It feels quite mild here today in the SW UK, we even have some sun. Have a great week Silke!xx

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  11. Such gorgeous colour! It feels quite mild here today in the SW UK, we even have some sun. Have a great week Silke!xx

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